Patent GB-753903-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in plant for automatic collection, pneumatic dispatch and automatic discharge of mail
IPC: B65G51/04
Filed: 1954-04-15
Abstract: 753,903. Pneumatic dispatch apparatus; shoots. SOC. ANON. S.I.B.-SOC. PER AZIONI SCIPIONE INNOCENTI-BOLOGNA. April 15, 1954 [April 15, 1954], No. 11144/54. Class 78 (1). Letters are dispatched automatically from a posting box when a predetermined quantity has been posted and conveyed pneumatically to a sorting station by apparatus which includes means for bundling the letters, opening a carrier and inserting a bundle therein, closing the carrier, propelling it through a tube connecting the box and station, opening the carrier and discharging the letters by gravity. Letters inserted in the posting box slide down a shoot 11, Fig. 3, into a chamber 15, the bottom 19 of which is pivoted. As the letters accumulate, the pivoted member 17 is raised. When a predetermined quantity has been received, this member has been raised sufficiently to close a switch 18 which starts the apparatus. The bottom 19 falls and the letters pass successively into chambers 21, 24 having pivoted bottoms 22, 25, respectively, and then into a shoot 27 leading to a station A for charging the carrier. The bottoms are returned automatically to the closed position as soon as the letters have passed them. The top and bottom of the shoot 11 and the walls of the shoot 27 are corrugated longitudinally. A part 12 of the bottom of the shoot 11 is hinged so that it can move to the position shown in dotted lines to direct the letters into a box 30 when desired. The part 12 is normally held in position in the shoot 11 by electromagnetic means 13, 14. The shoot 27 opens into the inlet 28, Fig. 9, of a drum 29 at the end of the conveying conduit B which contains means for rocking a carrier and for shifting its cover. The carrier 31, Figs. 6, 7, comprises a sheet metal shell of substantially rectangular cross-section, two of the walls of which 33, 133 are extended beyond the shell proper and are provided with edges shaped as circular arcs. At one end the extensions are connected by a fixed member which forms the bottom of the shell and at the other end they are formed with curved guides 35 for a slidable lid 34. The drum 29 contains a rocker consisting of a pair of circular end plates and connecting plates 43. When the rocker containing the carrier is turned from the horizontal position to bring the plates 43 into line with the inlet 28, the lid of the carrier remains within the end of the tube B and the opened carrier is ready to receive letters. An extension 38 of the tube B contains a buffer 44 and a trip member 45. Rods 46, 47 connect the latter member to a switch 48 which controls mechanism for actuating the rocker and positioning flaps 49, 50 in the branches 39, 40 leading to atmosphere and suction, respectively. After the letters have entered the carrier, it is moved to vertical position in order to settle the letters therein and is then turned back to the horizontal position. During the latter part of this movement the lid slides on to the carrier. The carrier is now propelled to station C, Fig. 1, where it is rocked by similar means to discharge the letters through the outlet 41. The empty carrier is then returned to the horizontal position and propelled to station A where the sequence of operations is resumed. In a modification which allows two carriers to be used at the same time, a rotary member 54, Fig. 2, simultaneously transfers a loaded carrier from the pipe B1 to the pipe B2 and an empty carrier from the latter pipe to the former.